Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar walks out of Business Advisory Committee meet

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday walked out of a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) for "lack of decorum" as ruling and Opposition members clashed over issues to be taken up in the last week of Budget Session.

Sources in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said Dhankhar left midway as the MPs attending the meeting could not reconcile their differences.

A senior Opposition leader said that they insisted on having a short duration discussion on an issue raised by it next week. The leader said they have been raising this issue in every BAC meeting when the Chairman has been saying that it is under serious consideration but no decision was taken.

Another Opposition leader claimed that they were demanding a discussion on "duplicate" Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers and sending bills to Parliamentary Standing Committees for scrutiny.

However, Rajya Sabha sources insisted that the EPIC issue did not come up for discussion and Dhankhar's action was due to the ruling and Opposition sides not budging from their position and “lack of decorum”.

Opposition sources claimed they wanted the government to fix the time for debates on issues like EPIC cards and the Manipur situation among others and highlighted that they were submitting notices on various subjects but were not allowed by the Chair.

They also said the Opposition had been accommodative to the government by accepting proposals to reschedule passage of Bills and not insisting on a specific rule or wording of the notice to discuss the issues they want to debate.

As there was no decision on the discussion, Trinamool Congress indicated that the House may face protest next week if the debate on EPIC does not take place.

The BAC meeting came on a day the Rajya Sabha witnessed a nearly 30-minute adjournment over remarks made by Samajwadi Party leader Ramji Lal Suman. The MP had called Rajput king Rana Sanga a 'traitor'. In protest, following which Karni Sena workers vandalised his residence in Agra on Wednesday.

Both in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, BJP MPs demanded Suman's apology. Suman was given the floor by Dhankhar in Rajya Sabha but due to the BJP protest, the Chairman adjourned the House till 12 noon.